Animal Welfare and Human Values

One: The Status of Animals: From Human Origins to Humanism

viii Animal Welfare and Human Values Seventeen Epilogue: Ode to Sensibility 307 Select Bibliography 317 Index 321 Acknowledgements In writing this book, broad in scope as it is, we became indebted to many persons from a variety of sources—authors of previously read and often unrelated books who helped inform our values, passing acquaintances whose insights triggered further thoughts of our own, friends who encouraged us and opponents who decried our ideas but persuaded us to believe ah1 the more that the book was necessary. There are many such persons, but the identity of a number is unknown and some others are perhaps best left unrecognized. There are a number of people, however, whose contributions have been such that we owe them a special debt of gratitude: Sandra Woolfrey, director of WLU Press, who first suggested the book be written and then continued to offer helpful advice; Dr. Anthea McQuade, the queen of commas, who valiantly attempted to improve our syntax; Stephanie Brown, former president of the Canadian Federation of Humane Societies, who afforded us trenchant criticism of the first draft of our chapters on animal experimentation; Judith McKibbon, who scoured the daily press for relevant material for the book while continuing to think us unfair to aboriginal Canadians on the trapping issue; Maura Brown, managing editor of WLU Press, who saved us from several embarrassments, made numerous valuable suggestions, often pointed out what we should have thought of ourselves—and switched to eating only free range eggs as well! To two persons our debts are more than is customary: Dr. Mathias Guenther, a Wilfrid Laurier University anthropologist; and Dr. David Porter, chair of the Department of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Guelph and former chair of the Steering Committee for the University of Guelph Centre for the Study of Animal Welfare. They were employed by WLU Press as readers of the submitted manuscript to help determine whether publication was appropriate. They put so much effort and expertise into their evaluations, offering much justified criticism along the way, that we were encouraged to refine some of what we had first written and avoid a number of pitfalls. We doubt that many other authors can have been so fortunate in a publisher's choice of appraisers. While we remain entirely responsible for the contents of this book and while we are aware that we will not have satisfied all the concerns of those who offered us valid and valued criticisms, we also know that without those friendly criticisms we would have produced a somewhat different book. Even though others may not bear the responsibility for the book's failures they share substantially in any value it may have. Both the Canada Council and the Wilfrid Laurier University Research Office have helped fund the publication of this book. We are duly grateful. Without assistance from public sources, much that needs ix x Animal Welfare and Human Values to be expressed would remain unheard. In Canada public funding remains a prerequisite of intellectual freedom. Finally, we would like to thank Helen Paret and Sherry Howse for their smiles and for their proficiency and goodwill in the typing and preparation of the manuscript for publication. We are happy that the book gave them an occasional chuckle, sad that they had to be sometimes sickened by reading of the cruelties civilized humans inflict on other species. Rod Preece Lorna Chamberlain Summer Solstice, 1992 Introduction We set out to write this book out of our concern for the animal realm. We have been in turn puzzled, exasperated and horrified at humanity's inhumanity to its fellow sentient beings. As chairman and vice-chairman, respectively, of the Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals we are constantly being made aware of the atrocities committed in the more than 400,000 square kilometres of the Society's jurisdiction—an area of extensive hunting, trapping, intensive farming and family farming, animal experimentation and pet-keeping. As the most populous province of Canada, Ontario is a microcosm of the animal welfare issues which beset Western civilization. Equally, though, this book is a reaction against the arrogant fanaticism of some of the animal liberationists who imagine there are simple moral solutions to complex social problems. Unfortunately, much which appears on behalf of the animal liberation movement, while well meant and straight from the heart, is little more than pious sentimentality , sometimes in the persuasively pretentious guise...